Updated 9:39 am, Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas join hands as they circle the Alamo on Oct. 5, 2006.

Members of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas join hands as they circle the Alamo on Oct. 5, 2006.

Photo: ERIC GAY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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The AG’s office hasn’t released findings of its investigation of the DRT, but has cited concerns about upkeep of the Alamo chapel’s leaky roof and inadequate capital fundraising.

The AG’s office hasn’t released findings of its investigation of the DRT, but has cited concerns about upkeep of the Alamo chapel’s leaky roof and inadequate capital fundraising.

Photo: Lisa Krantz/Express-News

Senate panel to discuss DRT's stewardship of Alamo shrine

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A committee of the Texas Senate will try today to sort out controversies at the Alamo, including a promotions contract that has created dissension among the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Last week, a Texas House panel approved a bill supported by the DRT that would create an Alamo advisory board. But critics of the DRT have said that bill does not go far enough in changing the way the state-owned shrine operates.

One expected area of focus at today's hearing of the Senate Administration Committee is a one-year, $900,000 contract the DRT entered last year with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment to promote the Alamo through television, movies and other media.

In response to questions from the Texas attorney general's office, the DRT's lawyer said the Daughters entered the contract without a written commitment, other than a pledge of $75,000 from Carolyn Lightfoot, a DRT member from Houston who serves on the group's Alamo Committee, to cover the first month's payment.

The DRT canceled the contract in February but still owes a second $75,000 payment to the company, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif., to be paid out over 10 months.

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“These funds will be paid from the Alamo's marketing budget,” Jim Ewbank, the DRT's general counsel, said in a March 28 letter to the attorney general's office.

Sarah Reveley, a former DRT member who was expelled last year, said the DRT board was told when it ratified the contract Nov. 5 that commitments from anonymous underwriters had been secured for the full term of the contract. Reveley blamed DRT President General Patti Atkins and Alamo marketing director Tony Caridi for advocating a contract that ended up costing $150,000, with little to show for it.

“I've always said the DRT is a fine organization that's been misled by its present leadership,” she said. “The board approved it on the condition that they had underwriters. They were flat-out lied to.”

Tammie Smith, a DRT board member and president of an Odessa chapter that opposed the contract in November, agreed that the board was deceived.

“The documents now public speak for themselves, showing there were never any underwriters,” she said.

But Caridi said the board knew that the only commitment had come from Lightfoot for one payment.

“Everyone knew going into this where we stood and what we had in hand,” Caridi said.

Some members have said the contract could have generated income for the Alamo. Others have said it was an ill-advised agreement that could have hurt the Daughters financially.

According to Ewbank's letter, arts patron Joe Hoelscher and Houston's Becker family “expressed interest in underwriting the (WMEE) contract.” Hoelscher was asked for $500,000, and the Beckers, who manage the Majestic Theatre, were asked for $300,000. Ewbank told the attorney general's office that both parties withdrew financial support after news surfaced in December that some DRT members opposed the contract.

Kirk Feldmann, who works with the Beckers as chief operating officer of Arts Center Enterprises, which runs the Majestic, said the Beckers sought involvement in a planned 175th anniversary concert extravaganza featuring Phil Collins, Ricky Skaggs and other artists at the Alamo on March 5. The DRT opposition wasn't the main reason for his group's decision not to participate.

“We'd been having problems getting information, including who the artists were going to be” at the concert, which was later canceled, Feldmann said.

Hoelscher declined to comment Monday.

According to a termination agreement signed by WMEE on March 4 and by the DRT on March 21, the contract was canceled because of “unforeseen cancellation of underwriting commitments.”

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, who represents the district that includes the Alamo, has called the WMEE agreement “a bad contract and a bad idea.”

Caridi said the contract would have helped the Alamo if it had been fully funded. “The groundwork was being laid for a lot of exciting things that would've proven lucrative in the long run,” he said.

Many Daughters are worried that new legislation might give the Texas Historical Commission more control of the Alamo and authorize an admission fee. A report last week by the Legislative Budget Board projects that an average fee of $6 per visitor would generate a net revenue gain of $8 million next year and $12 million annually after that.

The Senate Administration Committee's members include Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, and Jeff Wentworth, a local Republican and staunch DRT supporter.